1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for displaying multiple pages of content downloaded from a network, such as the Internet, in a viewer application window.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the rapidly expanding sources of information and documentation is the “World Wide Web” (WWW) or Internet. Content servers which provide access to information over the Internet typically utilize the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Oftentimes, textual information is implemented in a standard page description language such as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify “links” to other servers and files. Use of an HTML-compliant client browser involves specification of a link via a Uniform Resource Locator or “URL”. Users may access an HTML document from over the Internet and then use an HTML or web browser to display the downloaded file. The advantage of such HTML browsers is that they can execute on many different computing environments and numerous types of operating systems. Thus, an information provider need only code a document in HTML to make that document available to just about every computing platform that provides Internet access.
HTML documents may include hypertext links, which are implemented as a display icon or a highlighted textual indicator. The HTML link represents a URL address of another related HTML page of information. When a user selects a hypertext link with an input device, such as a mouse, the HTML browser generates a URL request for the document, such as the HTML page, that is addressed by the URL address. The URL can address a document at the same web site from which the current document came or from another different web site. Additionally, hypertext links can address locations within the current document to allow the user to “jump” to various places within the document without having to manually search the document for the referenced location.
A document or related pages, such as different newspaper columns from the same edition, may be presented across multiple HTML pages. Each page would typically include HTML links. In this way, web site designers can disperse related information across HTML web pages to allow users to navigate through different sections of a document using the HTML links. For instance, the web site designer may encode a page or discrete section of a book or manual on different HTML pages or separate newspaper articles from a newspaper on separate HTML pages. Typically, an HTML page includes a navigation area that provides HTML links to different parts of the same document or the next, previous, or related pages.
One of the important considerations in designing the graphical user interface of the Web browser is the manner in which users can navigate through previously accessed Web pages. For instance, in both the Microsoft Internet Explore and Netscape Communicator browsers,** users can select a “Back” button displayed in the menu bar of the browser window or a mouse button programmed as the “back” button to review the page previously viewed. The reason for this feature is that often when viewing a page, the reader will select a link within the page to view the content at the link, yet the reader will want to immediately return to the page from which they selected the link, i.e., the jumping-off page. There are disadvantages with the current art “Back” button solution. One is that when selecting a link, the browser may take time to fully load the next page. However, while the new page is loading, the contents of the page from which the link was selected may not be viewable, resulting in “idle” time. Such delays and idle time are especially problematic when the user's Internet connection is slow, i.e., a 56K modem, or when the server is overloaded. Further, if the reader just wanted to quickly view the linked page and return back to the page including the link, then the reader may experience delays in waiting for the page at the link to be downloaded. In returning to the previously displayed page, there may be delays in rendering the page or downloading all or part of the previous page. However, there may be no download delays if the previous page was cached by the web browser, unless some parts of the cached page have to be downloaded again, thereby causing further delays in moving back to the previous page.
**NETSCAPE is a registered trademark of the Netscape Communications Corporation; WINDOWS and MICROSOFT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; OS/2 is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation; JAVA is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
One prior art technique currently used is to open another browser application window, so there is an additional instance of the browser running in the system, and display the new page in the additional application window. This approach is cumbersome because there is no linkage between the opened application window and the browser application window from which the link was selected. Still further, the display of the opened application window may overlap the current application window requiring the user to toggle between windows to view the contents or to take action to cause the windows to be displayed side-by-side. This all requires additional user action. Further, the reader must be sure to close additional opened application windows otherwise too many open application windows could deplete system resources and degrade performance.
Another prior art technique is to display links on one side of a pane in a browser window and display the contents in a right pane. FIG. 1 illustrates how the Microsoft Internet Explorer displays hypertext links of search results in a left window pane 2 and the content of a selected link is displayed in the right pane 4. However, the selection of a link from the page displayed in the right pane will display the new page in the right pane 4. To go back to the parent page, the reader would have to use the prior art “Back” button approach.
Another prior art technique is to write HTML pages using HTML framing commands. FIG. 2 illustrates a typical use of framing in the Christian Science Monitor's web site. The left panel 10 includes links to different articles. Selection of a link in the left panel 10 displays the page at the link in the right panel 12. Selection of a link in the right panel 12 would display the linked page in the right pane 121, replacing the page from which the link was selected. Again to go back to the parent page, the “Back” button must be used. However, framing requires the use of specialized HTML tags that many web pages do not use and that many believe are cumbersome to implement.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved user interface for navigating web pages, especially with regards to viewing previously viewed pages.